Dentists recommend that patients regularly receive professional tooth cleaning to prevent tooth decay and cavities. In a typical professional cleaning, the dental professional uses a dental angle with a rotating applicator tip to apply dental prophylaxis paste to the patient's teeth and scrub any accumulated plaque and tartar off the teeth. To insure that the cleaning is thorough, the dental professional frequently adds dental prophylaxis paste to the applicator tip from a small, pre-packaged, disposable cup of standard size and shape. These cups, however, can be difficult to handle. Because the dental professional has the dental angle in one hand and is manipulating the patient's mouth or holding an instrument with the other hand, it is often difficult and inconvenient to stabilize the cup while cleaning a patient's teeth.
There are several devices available which attempt to remedy this problem. For example, one device is shaped like a ring, with a band to encircle a finger integral with a collar to hold a cup of dental prophylaxis paste adjacent to the dental professional's finger. The disadvantage of this device is that it lacks a structure to prevent articulation of the device. Thus, the device does not provide the stability desired because the device tends to rotate around the dental professional's finger when the applicator tip is pressed into the cup.
Another device for holding dental prophylaxis paste has an S-shaped handle depending from the lip of a well. The device is held such that the handle curls over the index finger and is secured from rotation by contacting the thumb at the second curl. Alternatively, the device could be held with the handle curling around the inside of one finger with the second curl bearing against the outside of an adjacent finger. The well is filled with dental prophylaxis paste.
If the device is secured with the thumb, one disadvantage of the device is that the hand could become fatigued from gripping the device for the duration of the dental cleaning procedure. Yet another disadvantage of this device is that the well must be filled with dental prophylaxis paste because the well is not adapted to receive pre-packaged cups of dental prophylaxis paste.
If the device is secured by an adjacent finger, one disadvantage of this device is that while the S-shaped handle helps to prevent articulation of the device around the fingers, the curl of the handle bearing against the dental professional's finger urges the well backwards toward the dental professional's hand. The awkward position of the well forces the dental professional to turn his or her hand to access the well containing the dental prophylaxis paste. Also, the backward tilt of the well may allow dental prophylaxis paste to fall from the well during normal use.
Regardless of how the device is held, a further disadvantage of this device is that, due to the S-shape of the handle, the dental professional must use two fingers, or a finger and the thumb, on the handle to secure the device. In other words, the device is not secured to a single finger but requires the cooperation of two fingers, or a finger and the thumb, to hold the device to the hand. This can interfere with a dental professional's ability to perform the cleaning procedure because the hand holding the device is unable to hold other instruments or manipulate the patient's mouth.
Thus, it can be seen that there is a need for a device which holds a standard size cup of dental prophylaxis paste in a stable position without interfering with the dental professional's ability to perform the dental cleaning procedure.